After The Videos Stop
by AussieTex
Summary: If Reconstruction never happened what would go on in Bloodgulch? The obvious really, Church is upset, Tucker and Sis cannot keep it in their pants and Caboose is confused. The Reds are in for one or two surprises as well as the past returns unexpectedly.
1. All Is Not Lost

**It** was another bright sunny day in the little box canyon, known as Bloodgulch, but Private Leonard Church didn't care for the weather for inside he was nothing but a cold, empty shell since the death of his ex-girlfriend and team-mate, the black armour-clad Freelancer Tex. It had been a month since she had died… again. He had known Tex since his basic training and was one of the few who known her real name, Alison. The rival team of the Reds had killed her when a bomb she had constructed had been placed on the ship she had been escaping and detonated by the Red leader, a Sargent who was only known as Sarge.

He wandered around the crater-hewn field that contained the few remaining pieces of the ship which Tex had been in. He didn't understand why he was searching this field but he couldn't make himself stop. Hell, he didn't even know what he was searching for.

Reaching up Church removed the cobalt coloured helmet from his head and slumped to the ground. He sighed as he lay back and stared at the sky.

"_Why do I feel this way? It's not like we were even friends anymore." _Church asked himself as his eyes, that were the same colour as his armour, came unfocused.

"_You liiike her Church, you love her still." _Answered a soft voice in his head that sounded like his blue clad comrade, Caboose.

"_Yeah, a half-girl half-shark who won't even sleep with you. Yep, she really was a keeper Church."_ Answered another little voice in his head, but this one sounded like his teal coloured and the only other guy on the Blue Team, Tucker.

"God! Why is it that when I ask myself questions it sounds like my team are answering?" screamed Church in frustration as he jumped up and kicked a loose piece of metal next to him. The piece of metal flew though the air and clinked as it hit another piece of metal as it landed.

"What the hell was that?" Churched asked as he walked towards where the piece of ship had landed.

**The** ghost-like figure looked around and reorientated itself; it too was in the exploded ship-hewn field. It saw the pieces of metal laying around and in particular a small silver piece embedded with a black diamond. It saw a piece of metal flying towards it and gasped as it went straight through it to hit the silver piece.

"Shit, I hate it when that happens." The figure remarked.

It looked up from where it was lying on the ground and saw a cobalt figure coming towards it.

"Oh crap!!" Cried the figure with feeling as it got up to its feet and hid itself out of sight of the approaching figure.

**Back** at the Blue Base, Caboose was eating pie as he discussed with Tucker about what to do about their depressed self-appointed commander. Unfortunately Caboose was incredibly stupid while Tucker was a self-obsessed womaniser and so coming up with a decent solution to their commander's problem would be a challenge.

"What should we do about Church, Tucker? He seems really upset since Shei… since Sheila blew up." Asked Caboose.

"Since Tex got blown up dumbass." Tucker pointed out angrily, "He doesn't give a shit about your former tank girlfriend or my kid! Why should we help him? He has never helped us!"

"Tucker, Church has just lost the woman who he hoped to marry someday. I mean he told you that he wanted to ask her to marry him but O'Malley and her training got in the way. How would you feel if I was killed by the Reds?" This came from the direction of the bathroom as a beautiful blonde woman stepped out in nothing but a bra and hotpants, her green eyes on show as she strapped on her bright yellow armour.

Tucker had to take a few deep breathes to calm himself as he watched her move into the room before answering, "I would be very upset Sis… very, very upset."

"Of course you would. Well that's what Church is going through right now. He's in mourning for Tex." Sis whispered.

"Hey guys! Where's my sis-" questioned an orange armoured man as he walked into the base.

"What are you doing here Red?" demanded Tucker.

"Sheila killer!" cried Caboose.

"Dexter! Why are you here?" yelled Sis.

The orange armoured guy just stood in the doorway looking at his sister with her blonde hair unbound and blushed when he noticed that only her leg armour had been put on yet. "Gees Sis, put some clothes on. What would mum think if she saw you like that?"

"I am dressed Grif! I've got a bra on. It's not like I'm flashing everyone and you have no right to tell me what to wear!" Sis shouted at her brother.

"You're not far off it though," Grif put up his hands in surrender before he continued, "Sarge just sent me over to invite you to a party to celebrate O'Malley's demise."

"Oh yeah?" asked Tucker sarcastically, "and gloat about how you killed my kid, destroyed our ship, our tank AI-"

"AI? What does the A-" Caboose asked with a confused look in his grey eyes.

"Shut up Caboose!" Tucker ordered, "Like I was saying, our tank AI and our freelancer?"

"OK I'll admit I'm not upset that the evil chick is dead but I am sorry about killing your kid Tucker." Grif admitted.

"Alright then apology accepted. When's the party?" Asked Tucker as he nodded his armoured head.

"Monday, 7o'clock." Grif replied.

"We'll be there."

Grif nodded, waved to his sister and left the Blue Base.

"Why did you say yes to going to the party?" asked Sis.

"It might just be the thing that cheers Church up." Tucker replied reasonably.

"Yeah a party that celebrates the death of the AI that was in his ex-girlfriend's head. Great idea Tucker!" remarked Sis sarcastically.

"No a party where he can get completely smashed and forget about Tex!"

Caboose leaped up at this and gave Tucker a quick hug, "Then he can be happy again and we can go back to being best friends without that mean person getting between us!"

Sis sat down with a sigh and started strapping on the rest of her armour, "Somehow I don't think that will work."

**Church** had found where the piece of metal he had kicked had landed and was searching for the thing that it had hit. When he found the silver piece of metal his knees buckled and he picked it up as all of his emotions came to the surface and threatened to burst out. He looked at the black diamond in the metal and remembered how hard he had saved up to buy it so he could put it in the silver hairclip he had hand-made to give to Alison as a graduation present. He remembered how it looked against her black hair with its purple streaks and how beautiful she looked with her hair pulled back so the soft waves of her hair fell over her shoulders and back as he looked into her violet eyes with their cat-like pupils and slowly leaned in for their first kiss. Well the first one that he had found the courage to try and give this fiery woman a kiss.

Church looked at the hairclip in his hands and was just as surprised that it had no damage from the crash as he was that Alison had still had it, even though as a robot she had no use for a hairclip. He had thought that when she broke off their relationship that she would have thrown out all the stuff he had given her. He sighed as his emotions settled and picked up his helmet and placed it on his robot head. It was the first time since his death that he was glad he was a robot because he felt that if he had still been alive that he would have cried his heart out and he hated to think what his team would think of that. He had to be strong for them, even if he felt all broken and empty inside. He got to his feet and headed back towards the base without looking at the wreckage that was all that remained of his former girlfriend.

**The** ghost was stayed very still as the cobalt-armoured robot walked away and when he had disappeared down the path back to the box canyon where he lived the figure got up and headed away from the wreckage and the canyon until it got to a strange solid, metal bubble-like thing.

The figure spoke, "Command, open, password: life."

The bubble-like thing opened to reveal that it was an escape pod and inside was a little Covenant baby who was known to the people in Bloodgulch as Junior. The little creature looked up at the ghost and said, "Blarg blarg?"

The ghost smiled at the little alien and replied, "Blarg blarg honk blarg."

Junior got up and smiled back at the ghost before saying, "Blarg chicka honk honk!"

The ghost smiled as it shook its head and followed the little creature into the canyon.

**Church** was sitting on his bed playing with Tex's hairclip when a knock sounded on the door. Church quickly hid the clip under his pillow before allowing the person to enter.

Sis came into the room before looking down the hallway to make sure nobody was around before shutting the door. She looked at Church as he slumped on the bed as she sat down next to him.

"What do you want Sis? I kind of what to rest." Church asked softly.

"I wanted to see how you were doing Church."

"I'm fine Sis. Why wouldn't I be?"

"No you're not Church. I know where you went today and I think I know why to and I wanted to know if you're dealing with what's happened lately."

"Really? Then where did I go today and why wouldn't I be dealing with whatever I was doing?"

Sis sighed as she took off her helmet and looked him in the robot eye. "You went up to the field where the ship crashed. I know the guys here are stupid and aren't the best people to tell stuff to but you can tell me what you might of found or what you're feeling… I won't tell anyone, Church, and I have the feeling that you really need to get this off your chest."

Church looked down at the bed before reaching under his pillow to draw out the hairclip. "I found this today. I gave it to Tex when she graduated from the basic military training. We started dating not long after and continued even when she entered that military program that ended up putting O'Malley in her head."

Sis nodded and put a hand on his shoulder to silently tell him to continue.

"When she had finished the program and started to realise what O'Malley was capable of she told me it was over for my own protection and gave all the photos of us together back and she then said that she had thrown all the stuff I had given her away. I believed her and I didn't say anything when she walked away. I couldn't believe what had happened and I didn't have the guts to tell her to come back and that I loved her and when I died…"

"When you died?"

"I realised I should of told her how I felt and that I wanted to marry her. Hell when I came back I had another chance to tell her everything but… my courage failed again. Now I'll never be able to tell her and what's worse is that I feel like I'm responsible for her destruction."

"How could you feel guilty about that? You had no idea what the Reds had done to disable the ship."

"Yeah but I should of guessed that they would do something like that or I should of taken care of the disabling myself or tried harder to get Andy to not explode or warn her or-"

"You can go over the would have and should haves all you want Church, but you did all you could and you shouldn't blame yourself for what happened." Sis replied as she got up to leave. She got to the door and opened it but she turned back and looked at Church, "Besides, I have the feeling that deep down, even though she would never admit it, that Tex really knew what you felt about her and that she to may have had some feelings for you to since she kept that hairclip, even after all she had said and done."

Sis walked out of the room and closed the door behind her as Church flopped back onto the bed and looked at the ceiling. He pulled a picture of himself and Alison out of his armour pocket that showed them standing together on a beach at sunset actually smiling at the camera. It was he favourite picture of the two of them and he sat there thinking of that day as he drifted off to sleep.

He never saw the ghost or Junior sneak past his window, run down along the canyon and into the caves that hugged the left side of the canyon.


	2. Uninvited Guests

**Saturday** afternoon saw the Red and Blue Teams come together for the first time since they had started the hunt for O'Malley. Sarge was in charge of the electronics (the huge sound system in other words) and the lights while Sis, Caboose and Donut were in charge of decorations that left Grif and Tucker with the most important task of deciding the food and the all-important stocking of the bar.

Church wandered into the marquee where the party was to be held and looked around in shock at all the bright colours and everyone's happy moods. Even Tucker and Caboose seemed to forget that this party was all because their 'loved ones' had died. He then realised that maybe Tucker was right and he too should get over the death of Tex. That was until he heard Grif and Tucker debating about what drinks to order.

"Vodka Cruisers?" asked Grif.

"Nuh, too girly of a drink." Tucker replied, "but make an order for a case of Coronas"

"Order one case of Vodka Cruisers, tropical flavour." Church ordered.

"Dude, your commander likes a girly drink?" Grif sniggered to Tucker.

"Church, why would we do that? You don't drink since you became a robot and anyway you said your favourite drink was Bundaberg Rum!" Tucker pointed out.

"Surely you know that Vodka Cruisers are my favourite drink Tucker? Or don't you pay attention to what I like at all?" asked Sis as she came over to Church's rescue with a sympathetic smile for her commander.

"Oh you like Cruisers? I didn't know that. I thought your brother would though." Tucker seemed confused as he looked to the orange-clad Grif.

"My sister ain't drinking anything but water at this party! God knows what you Blues would do to her if she went back to your Base drunk!" Grif growled protectively.

Sis smiled at him and gave him a wink before replying cheekily, "Who says I haven't already done something like that with these strapping young men?"

Grif looked completely shocked as Sis grabbed Church's arm and dragged him out the door.

"**Sis**… could you let go of my arm?" Churched asked as Sis dragged him up a hill away from any listening ears.

"Yeah sure." Sis dropped his arm as she turned to him with a serious look on her face, "Let me guess… Tex loved tropical Cruisers."

Church looked down at the ground and would have blushed if he weren't a ghost inhabiting a robot body. "Yeah, it was one of her favourite drinks other than Bundy or Tequila."

"So why do you want a case of her favourite drink if she isn't going to show up and you, the only person who would care enough to have them there for her can't drink them?"

"Cause… I don't know. I just thought it might be a nice idea to have something there that would remind me of her there I suppose. If she were still alive she would be there at the party downing as much of that stuff as she could and possibly be having a good time. I still feel as though any minute she's going to come through that door and threaten to bash the shit out of someone."

Sis looked at Church thoughtfully, "I know you really care about Tex and don't want to forget her but this isn't good Church. You have got to realise that she isn't coming back and start putting your life back together."

"I know that and I know in my head that she isn't, won't and can't come back but my heart… my heart just can't seem to let go."

"It will in time if you stop dwelling on the past so much. It's ok to remember the past but not to obsess about it. So how about you come to the party on Monday, celebrate with everyone else, maybe make a toast to Tex and then on Tuesday I will help you to heal the wounds left in your heart by that black-clad Freelancer. How does that sound?"

Church looked at his colour-blind teammate and realised that she was right. "Sounds good."

"Alright. Now I need your help putting up the lights on the roof so Sarge can hook them up later when he's finished with the sound system. I would ask Caboose or Donut but something tells me that putting them on a little ladder with heavy, colourful lights could be a bad idea."

Church couldn't help but laugh at that and nodded, "Yeah that would be a bad idea. Sure I'll help."

**In** the caves the ghost and Junior were making quick progress to their destination hidden deep under the canyon. Junior seemed to be having the time of his life, as now finally someone could understand what he was saying.

"Blarg honkie honk." Junior squealed when the ghost slowed down.

"Junior, do you mind if I speak English? Cause talking in your language is giving me a headache!" asked the ghost.

"Blurg."

"Thanks. I just hope you're right about this idea of yours otherwise I'll be really pissed off."

"Honk blarg."

"You knew I would be? What don't you know?"

"Blarg honk honk blarg honkie, bow chicka honk honk!"

The ghost laughed, "Bullshit Junior. Yes I see your mum and Sis getting together but… the other couple? Hell no!"

"Blarg blargie."

"You never really know what will happen until it does? I guess you're right but I still don't see it happening. Not that I care… look we're here." The ghost pointed out into a huge cavern that was located under Bloodgulch and was the same size as the cavern above.

The sound of their footsteps echoed across the cavern as they searched for the two things they had come to this cavern for. Junior found the first one near the body of another Covenant member and picked it up to show the ghost.

The ghost looked over the object and nodded. "Well I know where the other thing is so come on it's over there." The ghost pointed at the foundations of the Blue Base and the two figures made their way quickly over to the building. The ghost turned the corner and found itself looking at the dead body of the Freelancer Tex where the Blues had buried her after Donut had killed her with a grenade.

"Blarg Blarg! BOW CHICKA HONK HONK!" exclaimed Junior upon seeing the body.

The ghost looked at the alien and smiled. "You think that it's pretty? You really are Tucker's kid, Junior."

"Blarg honk honk blar."

"Anyone with half a brain would?" The ghost blushed and patted the creature on the head, "Well let's get to work. I want to get this thing up and going before the people in Bloodgulch have their little party on Monday."

Junior smiled and set to work on the deal he had struck with the ghost just seconds before the ship it had escaped from had exploded while the ghost watched on carefully and asked questions at certain points.

**It** was 9o'clock on Monday morning when Sis finally woke up. She turned to see that Tucker was still asleep and still naked after last night's after hour activities. Sis smiled as she remembered how much fun the two of them had together as she got up and threw on yesterday's clothes as she headed back to her quarters and a shower with a clean set of clothes.

When she had hopped out of the shower, dried and dressed she headed out to the kitchen to find Church already sitting there sipping some hot motor oil.

"Please tell me you were considerate enough to put some coffee on when you did that Church?" Sis asked as she tied her hair back in a ponytail.

Church smiled as he looked at the only girl in Bloodgulch, "Yeah I did but I wasn't sure if you would be up before it got cold."

"What do you mean Church? You could have just woken me up at seven like you usually do. I'm surprised to didn't actually."

Church took another sip before answering, "I didn't want to interrupt anything. You guys were still going at it when I shut down at 3 in the morning!"

Sis dropped her mug of coffee and blushed as it broke over the floor. "You heard us?"

Church smiled as he got up to help clean up. "Yep, you know if you didn't want anyone to hear you should have done it in your room. All the women's quarters are soundproof."

"Oh, why's that?"

"It is a long story but I just thought it would be a good idea when I took over the base in case I ever… got a visitor."

"You mean if Tex ever showed up."

"Yeah."

"Is she loud?"

Church actually had the grace to look away as he answered, "She made sure I was loud."

Sis looked confused and raised her eyebrow as a way to ask for an explanation.

Church sighed, "Like with most things if Tex actually started anything she made sure she did it well. If you were willing to do the same."

"Oh!" Sis looked impressed. "If only that was true for all men."

Church looked at her, "You mean after everything you guys did it still wasn't good enough?"

"No… it's just that I've had that problem before."

"Right… I didn't need to know that. I'll be up on the roof practicing ok?"

"Sniper or pistol today?"

"Sniper." Church replied as he grabbed his gun, put on his helmet and walked out the door as Caboose walked in.

"What were you guys talking about?" he asked as he got out a box of Fruit-loops.

"Nothing that you would understand Caboose." Sis replied with a smile.

**Down **in the cavern the ghost was almost glowing with pleasure as Junior put the finishing touches on his project.

"Blarg." Junior remarked as it stepped back.

"So it's all ready to go?" asked the ghost.

Junior nodded as the ghost let out a little giggle.

"Well I better get in and we better get going if we want to be up top for when the party starts."

"Blurg!"

The ghost jumped forward and disappeared into the product of Junior's hard work and the two of them headed back the way they came to get back topside before the Bloodgulch party started.

"**Welcome** to the "O'Malley's Dead" party, Blues!" cried Donut when the members of the Blue team walked into the marquee.

"Thanks Donut!" called Sis as she turned to Tucker and Church. "Not bad for something we through together in two and half days."

"I'll say." Remarked Tucker as he looked around the temporary room.

The tarpaulin walls reflected the bright, coloured lights that Sarge had put up, while the wooden platform that passed for the dance floor glowed under the layers of polish Doc had put on it while robots that Sarge had also created ran the DJ desk and the bar. Streamers of blue, teal, cobalt, yellow, purple, pink, red, maroon and even black ran along the roof beams and hung down in the corners.

"Whose idea was it for the armour coloured streamers?" asked Church.

"It was actually Caboose's to put them up but Donut suggested the black ones cause he said he realised that Tex did kind of sacrifice her life for us." Sis replied as she headed over to the bar.

"Wow." Remarked Church as he headed to the dance floor.

**The** party was in full swing as Sis and Tucker heated up the dance floor with a sexy salsa while a giddy Caboose and Donut were pigging out on the cookies that Doc had made and Grif, Simmons, Church and Sarge were having a loud discussion about the best type of sports car.

The song came to an end and everyone except Grif clapped the couple on the dance floor and the robot DJ called out for a song request.

"Do you have one called 'You Cockbites Are Gonna Get It Now!' or anything like it?" asked a harsh voice from the door. Followed by a loud, "Blarg!"

Everyone turned in shock to see Junior standing next to a beautiful woman.

Church couldn't believe his eyes. She was a slim 6ft tall, with lightly tanned skin; she was dressed in a tight fitting, black leather skirt and corset with purple trim. The outfit showed off her long legs and nice D-Cup breasts while highlighting her softly angled face with rich blood-red lips, large almond shaped eyes with cat-like pupils and violet irises and her long raven-black hair with dark purple highlights.

Tucker saw his kid and shouted, "Junior!"

The little alien ran forward and jumped up into the arms of its parent, while everyone else kept their eyes on the woman who just stood there scowling at the room.

Caboose stepped forward and looked at the woman and his face broke out into a smile, "Texie! You're ok! And alive again! YAY!"

Everyone now turned to stare at Caboose and said "Texie?"

"Alison." Church whispered in awe.

"That's right fucktards I'm-" Tex started to say but was rudely interrupted when Church ran forward and hugged her tight.

Church didn't want to let her go and rested his head on her shoulder as he whispered, "I thought you had left me."

Tex pulled away roughly and growled, "I did leave you Church, years ago."

Church fell away slowly, his robot face showing none of the pain, rejection or sadness he felt. Her words felt like knife that threatened to tear his heart in two and he couldn't take it anymore. He looked her square in her now human eyes and wondered how she had managed to reanimate her body before replying, "You always were a rotten bitch. I wonder how I ever fell in love with you and why I felt like my world had fallen apart when Sarge ordered Andy to kill you."

With those words Church turned and stormed out of the party.

A look of confusion past over Tex's face but was quickly replaced by anger as she turned to the Reds, "So it was you Sarge who ordered my destruction… now what should I do to get my revenge?"

Sarge looked almost terrified for a moment before replying in his gruff voice, "I ordered O'Malley's death and if you just happened to be in the way well you're just collateral damage."

"Really, is that so?" replied Tex with a look of pure rage, "well then you're just going to have to pay for that collateral damage."

With those words Tex launched herself forward and began bashing the shit out of Sarge with her bare hands. The Blues remaining at the party quickly ducked out of the way while Simmons leapt forward to help his commander only to be knocked out with a solid elbow to the temple from Tex. Grif moved forward to drag Simmons' body out of the way and received a punch to the nose for his trouble while Donut huddled in the corner hoping that the rampaging Freelancer would have forgotten that it was his fault she had died in the first place.

When Tex was finished Sarge had been beaten to the edge of his life, Simmons would wake with a major concussion, Grif had a broken nose and Donut had all of his ribs broken when she had rammed her shoulder into six or seven times, he didn't hide himself very well. The Blues looked in awe at their hired warrior as she calmly got up without a scratch on her, headed to the bar, grabbed a Vodka Cruiser and turned to her teammates. "My room had better been left exactly as it was when I get to it!" she growled.

Tucker nodded briefly as Junior giggled in his arms.

Tex nodded her head as she downed the bottle in one go and left to have the first real sleep in her own bed that she'd had in months.

Caboose and Tucker looked at each other before following the pissed off Freelancer at a respectful distance back to their Base.

Sis looked at the mess left by Tex and knelt down beside her brother, "I'll go fetch Doc, Ok? He'll have you better in no time."

"Yeah, do that." Winced Grif as he struggled to breathe and talk at the same time with his nose broken and bloody, "Someone has got to control that bitch!"

"She's pissed at you guys for killing her and somehow I don't think anyone could control her, no matter how hard they tried." Remarked Sis as she pulled herself up from the floor and headed to Blue Base to tell the purple-armoured pacifist, Doc, that his services were needed again.

**Church** paced along the edge of the cliffs in rage. Tex was back and the only thing she had been interested in wasn't him. After all he was the only one who had really missed her had even wanted her back. All she'd said to him was that she really had left him years ago.

"That BITCH!!" screamed Church in frustration as he kicked at the cliff.

"_Told you so… she doesn't even like you so why not go after someone else? Maybe someone who even cares about you?" _asked a little voice in his head.

Church threw his arms up and continued pacing along the cliff all while shouting abuse at his ex-girlfriend. He didn't stop until he felt a touch on his shoulder. "WHAT?!" he yelled.

Caboose shrunk back at Church's angry tone and his eyes watered slightly. Church saw the hurt in his team-mate's eyes and shook himself out of his rage before asking in a slightly nicer tone, "What do you want Caboose?"

"I wanted to see how you were now that Texie is back and alive again. Also I was wondering if you wanted a cookie and orange juice… it always cheers me up when Texie yells at me." He answered with a shrug and a happy smile.

"No I don't want a cookie. Why do you call Alison Texie and how did you know it was her? I didn't think anyone knew what she looked like under her armour but me."

Caboose blushed and ran a hand through his curly, blonde hair before answering, "I was exploring in the caves one day and I found her asleep with her armour off. She was very pretty with that purple-blackish hair of hers. I also like her little birthmark… oh and her tattoo… it's nice too."

Church put his hands on his hips, "So you knew she was pretty. What about the 'Texie'?"

"She woke up and saw me staring but she didn't rip my head off and we talked for a while and she gave me permission to call her Texie."

"I never would have thought that." Church sighed as he sat down on the ground and after a brief pause Caboose also sat down.

The two looked toward the base and Church pulled out his sniper rifle and aimed at the building. He looked through the scope and noticed that Tex had left her window open as she started getting out of her leather outfit. Church noticed that she still looked really fit, even after somehow regaining her body and that she still had a thing for purple-lace underwear. He blushed as she lay down.

Caboose watched his commander stare at their Base and guessed whose room he was peeking into. He finally decided to say something that had been bothering him, "If she's back in her real body… and she survived the explosion do you think that O'Malley might have survived too?"

Church quickly looked away from the scope and at his blonde companion, "No I don't think so… she wouldn't have been acting like that if he was still alive."

"How did she survive and get her human body back through?"

"I don't know… I'll ask her in the morning." Church got up and dusted off his pants as he waited for Caboose to get up as well.

"Yeah… then maybe you can get your's back and you two can enjoy some hey chicka bum bum!"

Church sighed and pushed Caboose towards the path back to Base, "Yeah, like she'll really sleep with me anytime soon!"


	3. Got It Going On

**Tuesday** morning, Tucker woke up to see that Sis hadn't come into his room last night when she'd finished helping Doc patch up the Reds but he wasn't concerned.

"_Why should I be worried about Sis not being here? I am after-all such a great catch, how could anyone resist me?"_ he thought to himself.

"_But Doc saw her naked first! What if he decided to return the favour?" _asked a slightly more suspicious part of his brain.

"_She sleeps with me every other day so I got nothing to worry about. Besides I could always see if Tex wants some fresh meat since Church is a robot. I can see why he put up with that bitch for so long…she's HOT!"_

"Oi Tucker! You getting up anytime soon?" asked Sis from the doorway.

He looked up to see her leaning against the door seductively with a cheeky smile on her face. All her armour was on except her helmet but Tucker didn't need to see to know what she was wearing under all that metal. He had gone through her closet earlier after-all and Sis had a thing for very tight fitting hot pants. They showed her ass off to perfection. Think Kylie Minogue's little gold number and you got a standard piece of Sis' wardrobe.

"Well are you?" she asked again.

He smiled sexily at her, "Yeah… I'm getting up."

The two headed to the kitchen to find an icy silence as Tex and Church glared at each other across the table as Caboose cowered as he was stuck in the middle. Tucker looked at his girl and shrugged as she headed to the counter to grab some toast and he grabbed Caboose by the arm and dragged him out of the Base so that Tex and Church could have their little spat in peace. After what he had seen yesterday… he didn't want to get caught in the way. It seemed Sis had the same idea as they left Caboose on the roof of the Base and they headed into a secluded little spot behind the base where they could have some breakfast and maybe some bow chicka bow wow in privacy.

**Tucker** wasn't far of the mark. Within seconds of everyone else getting out of earshot Church and Tex had launched into a full-scale verbal war. Her calling him a lazy, too-caring fucktard or something like that and him calling her an unforgiving bitch who cared about no-one else no matter what anyone else felt or, again, something like it. The shouting continued as the two got closer together and closer to physical violence and possibly could of ended up as a fight but with their faces just an inch away Church did something that Tex wasn't expecting… he kissed her, as well as his robot body could anyway.

Tex was shocked, here was Church a ghost in a robot body, his heart broken by her so many times and yet he still wanted to kiss her and love her. She drew away softly and sighed. She would never admit it out loud but she had missed kissing Church… he was a damn good kisser, especially for a robot.

Church looked at the softer expression that was slowly making its way onto Alison's face and smiled, "I would do that properly but as you can see… I'm still a robot."

"Yeah, I did notice that… your lips hurt a little." She smiled at him and her entire face just lit up and her eyes glowed as she looked at him.

"So how did you survive the explosion and get your body back?" Church asked as he once again took his seat and sipped his cooling motor oil.

Tex pulled up her chair, took a bite of a piece of toast and sighed as she began her story.

"I ordered Sheila to take off and I could feel O'Malley starting to get comfortable in my head again and I saw Andy counting down and I realised what was going to happen so I cut all radio communication with and within the ship before O'Malley could stop me and waited for Andy to go off and with ten seconds to go Junior asked if I could save his life… he just wanted to go back to Tucker. He said he could give me my human body back if I did so I put him in the escape pod and let it go as I left my robot body with O'Malley trapped inside and left the ship. I wasn't fast enough to get away from the ship and so I lost awareness and woke up when I saw you walking through the field. I hide until you disappeared with my hairclip and went to find Junior."

"You were there on the cliff! Why didn't you show yourself to me?" Church asked outraged.

"I didn't want to until I was sure Junior could get my body back." Tex answered simply before continuing her story.

"I found the escape pod and let him out and we made our way into the canyon. We hid ourselves but we did manage to hear about your little party so I decided I would use that as my grand entrance so we went into the cavern located under Bloodgulch and Junior found the thing he needed to bring me back to life. He gave he some improvements and repaired my body and I hopped into it-"

"What kind of improvements?" Church asked.

"He just made me stronger, faster, harder to hurt, quicker to heal and basically just better. Can I continue?" Tex seemed mildly amused at Church's questions.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Anyway I hoped back into my body and came to your party, pissed you off and beat the crap out of the people who were responsible for, ordered or threw the grenade that ended up killing me."

Church leant back and stared in awe at Alison before he pulled himself together, "Well I'm impressed. So do you think that Junior might be able to give me my body back too?"

"Blarg honkie blurg honk!" Junior remarked as he came into the room.

"Blarg honk?" Tex asked.

"Blurg!" replied Junior, "Blar honk, BOW CHICKA HONK HONK!!"

Tex smiled as she gave Junior the finger before turning to Church, "He said yeah if you want to come with us now."

"Sure!" Church exclaimed, "Wait… you understand him?"

"Yeah, I gained the knowledge when I possessed his body so I could launch the escape pod and when he brought my body back to life he made sure that he had changed it so I could speak his language fluently."

Church looked a little sceptical but when Tex looked at him he realised that if Junior could give him the chance to be in his body again and with Tex, he would have to get over his hated of the little alien love child.

Junior reached up a tugged on Tex's arm, "Blarg?"

"Alright then," Tex looked at her ex and sighed, "you ready for this then?"

Church looked at Junior and the black-clad freelancer and nodded. Junior let out a little squeal and dragged Tex and Church out of the Base and into the caves to bring Church to life.

**Caboose** laughed as he watched Junior drag Tex and Church away. He knew that Tucker's kid really wanted the two of them to get together again. Caboose kind of felt the same way, after all Texie made Church happy and if Church was happy he wouldn't be as mean as he normally was. He didn't know if Tex would be nicer with regular sex but it was always worth a shot. Thinking of regular sex he looked to the left to see Sis and Tucker emerging from behind Tucker's Rock. Their helmets were off and Sis was struggling into her chest armour while Tucker was doing up his greaves. Caboose did feel a little left out since he was the only one not getting any but it didn't really bother him. After all, things were looking up since the party. He felt like things were moving forward in his love life but things like that take time. Maybe after Church came back he could ask Texie about what to do next. She may be mean but she was a good listener and her advice was usually right.

**Down** in the caves Tex was looking over Church's dead body while Junior got ready to start reviving it. Tex was surprised to see how well muscled it was despite the decomposition and made a mention of it to Church.

Church would of blushed if he'd had any blood when he heard Tex's remark about his body but thought he should give an explanation, "Well I noticed that all the guys you ran off with had decent muscle tone and all that so I thought I'd try and improve mine."

Tex looked at him, "Why? To try and impress me Church?"

"No… more like to make me feel better about myself. Why… are you impressed, Alison?"

Tex threw back her head and laughed, the movement drawing Church's eye to the smooth, graceful length of her neck and the curve of her shoulders, "Sort of, I suppose. I like my men muscled, with strong arms, a defined chest and a decent six-pack… so yeah, I like what you did."

"Thanks Alison."

"You're welcome Leonard, just don't expect me to jump in the sack with you when we get back to Base. It would ruin my bad-ass reputation."

Church laughed at that before admitting it wasn't really on his mind and Tex soon joined in the laughter. Junior looked over at them as he picked up Church's body and started his work on it. The alien child sighed and shook his head at the stupidity of the Blue leader and his cowardice to admit how he really felt about the beautiful freelancer. He just hoped that they would stop dancing around and realise that they were made for each other.

**Tucker** laughed as he got his pants back on, Sis was struggling to put her double-D size 'puppies' back in her tight armour and he remarked to his lover, "I would of thought that the water would make it slide on easier."

Sis glared at him as she finally got her boobs in, "The water helped you side along me easier, by the time we finished it was all gone."

Tucker reached up and closed the clips that kept Sis' chest armour attached to the rest of her outfit and whispered with an evil look in his eyes, "Well then maybe I need to keep you out of your armour more if its so hard to get into."

Sis gave Tucker an evil look of her own and reached down to help him with his greaves. She grabbed and locked into place the 'box' piece that protected a delicate piece of the male anatomy, she stroked over the area until Tucker threw his head back and sighed, "I'm surprised you can fit that into your armour… it's an impressive size."

Tucker moved behind and held her close, "You know it, girl."

"Of course I do… I just spent an hour with it inside me!"

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow!"

**While** the Blues were either getting it on, getting their bodies back or just staring out into space the Reds were hiding in their base licking their wounds from the night before.

"That bitch broke my nose!" screamed Grif, as he attempted in vain to breathe and eat at the same time. While Doc had been able to set his nose back into position, it had to heal on its own and so was very tender.

"At least she didn't almost kill you like she did Sarge." Simmons pointed out as he swallowed two headache pills to try and lessen the pounding in his head from the concussion.

"You got off easy, at least you can breathe without pain," Donut moaned as he rubbed his chest, "she broke every one of my ribs!"

"You were the one who killed her in the first place." Simmons remarked.

"After she tried to kill me and got me stuck in this light-red armour!" Donut whined.

"For the last time Donut, we know you're trying to safeguard your masculinity but it's just faster to say pink." Grif laughed.

"It's lightish-red!" Donut cried.

"PINK." Simmons and Grif declared in unison.

Donut sighed and gingerly sat down, "So how do you guys know its pink if you're as 'masculine' as you say?"

Grif and Simmons looked at each other and smiled as they got up and headed to Grif's room.

Simmons turned and looked at Donut, "We're masculine… I never said we were straight."

As Simmons headed out of the room to join his lover Donut's mouth dropped. Sarge entered the room with the help of a walking frame. In a word… Sarge looked dead. What parts of his body weren't in casts or bandaged was all nice shades of blue and purple due to the bruising. Donut knew his commander must have been really hurt since it was the first time he had seen Sarge out of his regulation Red armour.

"Are you alright Dad?" Donut asked softly.

"What did I tell you about calling me that when the others could hear you?" Sarge barked.

"Sorry Fat- I mean sorry Sarge."

"It's ok Franklin. So where are the others?"

Donut looked at the hallway leading to Grif's room and blushed behind his armour, "Doc said it was best for them to be left alone, today. He also said the Blues will leave you alone since they don't know what's going on with that Freelancer."

"We really should look into hiring her for our side."

"Somehow I don't think Grif will like that."

"Even more reason to do it, Private. Even more reason."

**In** the cavern things were going well. Tex and Church were in their ghost forms while Junior worked on restoring Church's body and making some minor adjustments to Tex's. Things were going well as Church and Tex hadn't argued once… yet.

"So what are you doing to my body Junior?" asked Tex.

"Blarg honk blarg honkie blard." Junior replied as he pointed to the area.

Tex blushed and giggled, "Thanks Junior… it will make my life easier."

"And everybody else's." remarked Church sarcastically; he too could now understand what Junior was saying.

Tex turned to Church with her hands planted on ghostly hips, "What do you mean by that?!"

Church shrugged, "You ain't the easiest person to get on with at the best of times and you're almost a hundred times worse at that time of the month so if Junior can make them stop or last for maybe and hour… it's an improvement."

"Right." Muttered Tex.

Church walked forward and gently placed a hand on her shoulder but he was ready to pull away if she didn't want it.

Tex was surprised that Church had the courage to touch her when she had been pissed just a second ago but what was even more surprising was that she could feel his touch, given that they were both ghosts at this point. The touch was electrifying; the feeling of it spread quickly and made its way along her arm. She looked at Church and saw that the touch had affected him as well.

"Did you know we could do that?" Tex asked softly.

Church shook his head, his eyes wide with surprise, "No, I didn't."

Tex sighed, "That's the thing I missed the most about being dead… feeling."

"Yeah, I miss the afternoon breeze on my face and I remember how you loved standing outside in the rain," Church reached forward and hugged her close, "I missed this too."

His hug made Tex gasp as she could feel everywhere he touched. From his head on her shoulder, his chest along her back, the way their hips seemed to fit together, his thigh rubbing on the outside of her leg to the feel of his arms wrapped around her waist. She didn't know what to say or what to think. She thought that she was over Church, hell she though she hated him. It took her a moment to realise she'd only started to hate Church once O'Malley had gotten in her head. Sure she'd been pissed at him before, their personalities almost guaranteed that they would fight occasionally, she was a rotten bitch after all but it had been O'Malley's influence that had really forced them apart. When she finally realised just what O'Malley had cost her she turned to face the ghost of her ex-boyfriend.

"I missed this too." Tex admitted.

Church looked surprised at her admission and hugged her tighter, "I thought you hated me. Why would you miss this?"

She sighed as she looked at the confused look on his face and giggled, she always thought he looked cute when he was confused, "I always thought you could be a pain in the ass, Leonard, but it was O'Malley who made me hate you."

"Why would he do that?"

"Maybe because of all the people I've slept with… only you cared enough about me to try and save me when O'Malley took over."

"Yeah… I would of given anything to help you remove O'Malley," Church smiled at her cheekily before letting go of Tex and remarked, "even if you always were an ungrateful bitch!"

"Hey you dick! You exactly a saint either!" yelled Tex as Church ran off.

She quickly caught up and attempted to tackle him but flew straight through him. Church laughed and took off in the other direction with Tex close behind. They came back to where Junior was working to see him watching them while he tapped his foot.

"What?" Tex asked the little alien.

"Blarg honk blarg!" Junior replied with a smile.

Tex considered what he said for a moment before replying with a slight tone of resentment in her voice, "OK, ok… you were right. Happy now?"

"Blurg!" Junior answered as he jumped up and down happily.

"What do you mean when you said 'I told you so' to Tex?" Church asked Junior.

Tex sighed, "When we came here the first time Junior said that before Sheila blew up he could see some relationships forming… two in particular and it turns out… he was right on the one that I never thought was possible."

"What was that?" Church asked.

"Us." Tex said simply.

"Oh," Church took a breath before continuing, "who's the other one?"

"Tucker and Sis but I thought she would have more sense-" When Church smiled she stopped, "They did? They got together?"

Church nodded, "Sis and Tucker have been having some 'bow chicka bow wow' for about two weeks now."

"Wow… how do you know? Somehow I don't think Tucker that insensitive to talk about sex when I'd just died and Sis wouldn't of told you for the same reason." Tex mused.

"Let's just say… they're loud."

"Both of them?"

"Yep."

"Well at least we know that you and Tucker do have something in common after all… besides you both wanting to get into my pants." Tex replied sexily.

"That's not fair… just because I loud with you doesn't mean I'm always loud!"

"So I'm only one good enough to make you scream?" Tex gave him a cheeky smile as she ran a hand along his chest.

Church was so glad he was a ghost at this moment, Tex would never of let him live it down if she knew how much of a hard-on he would have if he had blood pressure or how much he would be blushing at this point. "Yeah."

"Well it's good to know that a girl is good at her job." Tex laughed.

Church rolled his eyes to the ceiling and prayed that Junior would be finished soon so he could get away and calm down.


	4. Bow Chicka Bow Wow

**Donut** made his way out of the Red base and along the canyon. He was so nervous that he couldn't walk straight or stop shaking. He didn't know what to say or what to think but he needed to know… was he alone in this or… was there feelings from the other side as well? He had to know and the only way to find out would be to ask… here's hoping he wouldn't get shot the moment he came into sight of Blue Base.

**Caboose** was still on lookout duty when he saw Donut come over the hill towards his base. He smiled and threw a small bottle towards the pink guy before walking down the ramp into Blue Base.

**Donut** saw the object flying towards him and quickly backed up, as he feared that it was another grenade from Tex. When the object bounced on the ground he moved forward and saw that it was just a bottle.

"God, these Blues are so responsible with the environment!" Donut whinged into the air as he walked forward to pick up the bottle so he could recycle it.

He picked it up and saw that there was a message inside. He took the lid off and shook the bottle until the small piece of paper fell out into his palm. He unfolded it a struggled to read the crappy handwriting:

_Dear Donut,_

_You said at the party that you'd like to talk to me some more. So if you still want to… meet me in the caves in half an hour. I would hate for you to get shot by my teammates before I could talk to you._

_From Caboose._

Donut smiled as he tucked the letter into an armour pocket. Things were looking up.

"**Please** Tucker! Just this once!" Caboose begged.

"No Caboose, it's your turn for guard duty so get up there and do it!" Tucker snapped.

"But you never do guard duty… you always make me do it!" Caboose whinged.

"So? What's your point?" Tucker asked as he lent back on his chair.

"So… I'm going to make you do your turn… right now!"

"No you're not. You ain't got the balls!"

Caboose realised that Tucker may be right, he couldn't force Tucker to take his turn at guard duty… but Tex could.

"_So what would Tex do?"_ Caboose asked himself.

"_She would yell and scream and scare the shit out of Tucker until he would do what she told him to."_ Answered his smart part.

"_But could I?"_ worried his weaker part.

"_Course we could… we just do what Texie would do!"_ exclaimed his more confidant part.

Caboose looked at his team-mate lounging back in his chair and demanded, "You'll get up and do your turn Tucker!"

"Or what? You'll bitch slap me?" Tucker laughed.

Caboose moved forward and grabbed the back of Tucker's chair and dumped him on the ground. He stood over Tucker and yelled, "You'll do it or I'll tell Tex you were in her underwear draw!"

Tucker paled as he thought of what Tex would do to him if she believed that he had been in her underwear draw… and she'll believe Caboose, it wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed his mind.

Realising he would have to do it he got up off the floor and gave Caboose a shove, "Fine I'll do it but you better not double cross me!"

Caboose smiled behind his helmet, "I won't," Caboose ran out the door to go meet Donut, "Thank you Tucker!"

"He better have a damn good reason for making me do work." Tucker grumbled as he picked up his helmet and headed up the ramp to start guard duty, "at least he could of left me the sniper rifle!"

**In** the cave, Donut nervously fiddled with his helmet. He was waiting for Caboose and was beginning to wonder if this was a set-up. After all, Caboose was a Blue and his dad had said Blues could never be trusted. He heard footsteps approaching from the mouth of the cave and readied his assault rifle, just in case it was a trick. The person came around the corner and Donut lowered his rifle. Caboose looked at Donut and took off his helmet and smiled at the guy in pink. Donut smiled back at the blonde Blue member as his stomach did a little flip-flop. He hadn't told anyone else this, especially not his father… he wondered how Caboose would react to his confession.

"How are you, Caboose?" Donut asked quietly.

Caboose sat down next to Donut and replied, "I'm good… how are you?"

"Good… I'm good too, Caboose."

"You can call me Michael, Franklin. Its not very fair if I know your first name and use it if you can't do the same."

"Michael," Donut murmured, "That's a nice name."

"Thank you… so what do you want to talk to me about? It seemed important."

Donut visibly hesitated before answering, "Um… I don't know…how about what's going on at our bases?"

Caboose smiled, "OK… you first."

"Alright… everyone is really sore after what that Freelancer did to us. Sarge almost died, Grif can't breathe and eat at the same time without pain or difficulty and Simmons has a really big headache from where he was knocked out. Grif is really pissed at her."

"Tex can be really nasty when she's cranky. When she first arrived here at Bloodgulch… she used me as target practice."

"She shot at you?!" Donut exclaimed.

"Yes… luckily she's a better shot than Tucker or Church."

"Yeah… so what's been happening at your Base, Michael?"

**Under** the box canyon, Junior was putting the finishing touches on Church's newly restored body.

"God, I can't believe I can eat again in just minutes!" Church exclaimed.

"How 'bout we celebrate by eating those chocolates you gave me when I first came here?" Tex offered.

"You never ate them? Didn't you like them?" Church asked, a little hurt.

"You gave me my favourite chocolates… how could I not like them? I never got a chance to eat them. First you and I had that fight about if I owed you a favour, then Tucker asked me to fix the tank and when I finally got it working again you went off to warn the Reds and I ended up dead thanks to Donut!" Tex fumed.

"Oh… I didn't think of that."

"I didn't think so."

"Blarg!" called Junior who was standing by the bodies of the Freelancer and Private.

"All finished?" asked Church.

"Blurg!" The alien nodded.

"Alright then. In we go!" Church declared.

The two ghosts moved forward a hopped into their respective bodies and just enjoyed the feel of the breeze in the cavern, the rush of their blood moving around their bodies and the general sensations of just simply being alive.

"God, I'm so horny right now." Church whispered.

"I heard that, Leonard." Tex remarked with a smile.

"Hey, it's the first time I've had blood pressure in three years… can you blame me for wanting to enjoy it?"

"No but don't expect to get laid just because you have your body back."

"But I don't." replied Church as he moved up behind Tex.

She was dressed in only a silk camisole and short skirt that left her birthmark on her neck, the State of Texas, and long legs on show. Church wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her right shoulder next to her birthmark. He then stuck out his tongue and ran it from under her jaw, along her neck and across her birthmark and back up when his tongue reached the strap of her top. Tex's breath came out in a sigh as she tilted her head back so Church could explore along her soft skin more easily. Tex's neck was a major erogenous point for her and Church knew just how to push her buttons.

"That's… not… fair!" she gasped.

"I know." Church whispered in her ear before gently biting her neck over her pulse, bringing a low moan out of her throat.

"God." Tex sighed, her voice soft.

"So… how about it, Alison?"

"Yes."

"BOW CHICKA HONK HONK!" exclaimed Junior as the couple ran back towards the surface.

"**So** Tucker is doing Grif's sister?" Donut asked.

"Yep!" Caboose replied.

"He's going to be pissed if he ever finds out… Grif is very protective of Sis."

"You're not going to tell him are you?" Caboose seemed worried that he could of just gotten his teammate in trouble.

"No, cause then he'll want to hurt Tucker and Grif will get hurt and when everything is finished he'll want to know how I knew and I'll get into trouble too."

"You'll get into trouble for talking to me?"

"Most likely. Sarge doesn't trust or like any Blues so he'll think I'm a traitor if he found out."

"Church isn't like that… I mean Sis doesn't get in trouble for talking to Grif."

"That's because they're siblings."

"Oh right… I forgot."

Donut laughed, "I have that problem too sometimes."

"_Caboose… Caboose… where are you?"_ Tucker's voice came in over the radio.

Caboose turned to Donut, "Sorry I've got to take this call!"

Caboose keyed in his radio mike and replied, "I'm in the caves… why?"

"_Tex and Church are back and they want all of us out of the Base… something about unbearable pressure that they have to fix or something. So Sis asked me to ask you if you wanted to play Tag with us."_ Tucker called.

"Tag? Oh I love playing tag! I'm in!" Caboose replied.

"_Alright, meet you at the tree in two minutes."_ Tucker replied as he turned off his radio.

Caboose turned to Donut and said, "I got to go now… maybe we can do this again sometime?"

Donut gave a small, quiet sigh of relief, "Sure… I'll come see you at the Base when I can get away."

"Alright then." Caboose picked up his helmet and strapped it back on. He gave a quick wave to Donut before running out of the cave to go meet his teammates.

Donut kicked at a rock once Caboose was gone, "I'm such a chicken shit! I couldn't even tell him to see how he would feel. Now he will want to be friends!"

He let out a scream of frustration at his cowardice and almost didn't hear Grif call him over the radio for him to come back to Base. His favourite show, Supernatural, would be on soon. He turned and ran from the caves but not before he took a quick glance at Caboose chasing Sis and Tucker around the tree in the centre of the canyon.

**Tex **and Church stayed very still until the others had left the Base.

"Please… tell me they're… gone." Church moaned as he struggled to breathe past his hard-on.

Tex stared out the window, "Yeah… ok… they're gone."

"Thank… God!" Church whispered as he moved forward and kissed Tex on the lips.

Tex met Church's kiss and kissed him so hard that he would have to open his mouth for her or cut his lip on his own teeth. He hesitated just long enough for the first sweet, coppery taste of blood to enter his mouth and he let her in. The feel of her tongue in his mouth made a moan start in his throat and when she licked across his lip to collect the blood he shivered ever so slightly in her gasp. When her tongue retreated he returned the favour. The taste of her was intoxicating to the Private, he slid his tongue across her lips in a mirror of what she had done, then slid his further inside so he could touch hers. Tex brought her tongue up and the tips touched lightly before the two pulled away from the kiss.

Church lowered his head and began licking and nibbling along her neck, leaving small indents of his teeth behind until Tex moaned and pulled at his shirt. The two locked lips again as Tex dragged Church to her room.

Once in the room she slammed the door and drove Church onto the bed. Once there she pulled him up into a sitting position as she straddled his legs and tugged on his shirt again.

"Take it off, lay on your stomach." She ordered as she placed her hand under his shirt and ran it along his chest, across his washboard abs, tracing every line and curve until she came to his nipples. Her fingers danced lightly over the sensitive skin and when he threw his head back she ran her nails lightly across the skin.

Church pulled her hands away from his skin and did what she asked. When he lay down she grabbed a pair of black, fuzzy handcuffs from under the bed and tied his hands to one of the posts of the headboard.

She played her hands over the muscles of his shoulders and down his back. When she reached the top of his jeans she ran her hands back up along his spine, harder this time. When she reached the top again Church was tugging at the handcuffs and she stopped.

"Do you want me to keep going?" she asked quietly.

"Yes… yes… just go…do it!" Church's voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Tell me if you need me to stop." Tex whispered before dragging her nails along his back leaving ten straight, pale lines along his tanned skin.

Church moaned as he felt her nails cutting into his skin. To him pain during sex was just another type of turn on and he loved it. He felt her weight shift over his ass as she leaned forward. He felt her breath on his back and the moisture of a kiss before the sharp pain of a bite on his shoulder blade made him rise up and tug at the cuffs that stopped him from moving too much and injuring himself. He felt her release the skin and he dropped back down onto the bed. Her weight shifted again and he felt the electric sensation of another bite on the other side this time. The feel of it made it hard for him to breathe and every time she released she would pause just long enough to take a breath before biting again.

Tex released the skin she had been holding and looked at Church's back. She could see the perfect indents of her teeth all over his back. While they looked nasty now she knew they would fade within an hour, she lent forward again towards a clear piece of skin and bit down again. She enjoyed the texture of his flesh in her mouth, the feel of his pulse just under his skin like candy and pulled away when he moaned again. She knew he wouldn't be able to last much longer under this so this last one… she could indulge herself a little. She found a clear patch of skin just near the top of his firm ass a bit down much harder than she'd done before, gathering more of his flesh into her mouth, her teeth digging in deeper and deeper until copper sweetness graced her mouth and Church screamed her name. She realised her mouthful and allowed him to drop to the bed, she could see the harsh dents her teeth left behind and saw the blood beginning to flow into the wounds, she licked at the blood until Church made little animal-like noises. She reached up and undid the handcuffs.

When Church felt the release of the handcuffs he rolled over, taking Tex with him until he was the one straddling her hips with her looking up at him with wide eyes. This time it was Church who delivered the bruising kiss, forcing her mouth open and his tongue playing along the inside of her mouth. When she moaned he broke the kiss and again started licking and biting along her neck and collarbone until her breath came out in a sigh. He reached down and lifted her skirt upwards before leaning back to undo his jeans.

When Church lent back to undo his pants, Tex moved forward to meet him and soon his jeans and underwear were somewhere on the other side of the room and the grace of his equipment was visible. His tan was hereditary so there was no break between the delicate brown of his stomach to the length of him. It was a large size and curved ever so slightly upwards and when Tex reached forward to cress the delicate skin of it, Church's head was forced back and a low guttural sound came from his throat.

Church looked down at the woman he loved and asked, "Are you ready?"

She looked up at Church, smiled and nodded. After that there was no need for words or even breath for them as Church roughly drove himself into the Freelancer. Her head was thrown back as he forced himself inside until he was perfectly nestled inside of her. He then drew himself out so slowly that she could feel every little movement and the sensation of it drew moans and soft cries out of her mouth. When it was almost completely out of her he pushed himself back in, slower this time and when he reached the end, back out again in slow controlled movements.

Once Church had made enough room for himself and she was very wet his pace and his force began to pick up until all that could be heard was the moans torn from their mouths and the hammering of their flesh meeting again and again. The two began to reach their peaks in perfect synchrony and when she tightened around him as the organism spilled over Church screamed her name as he felt his release and he fell down next to her on the bed, struggling to catch his breath.

The two lay there for a moment allowing their breaths to catch up and their heart rates return to normal.

Church lay there next to the woman of his dreams with him still inside her. He let out a small sigh before turning to meet her eyes; "We really ought to do this again sometime."

Tex laughed too as she ran a hand down his chest, "Yeah but first we better get up and get dressed so Caboose or Tucker don't start asking questions."

"Alright, so who goes first?"

"You better go first, I don't think my legs are working properly yet."

Church laughed again as he pulled himself out of her, bringing sighs from both mouths, and grabbed his clothes before heading into his room for a shower.


	5. Oh Snap

"**So** did you and Church fix that pressure problem?" asked Sis as she ducked her head around the open door of Tex's room.

Tex, now dressed in her signature black armour but with her helmet off, looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at the only other girl in Bloodgulch, "Yeah we fixed it… wasn't very hard though. Someone just hadn't used the equipment in a while."

"Good… here I was worried that the Base would blow up or something."

"No… some people may not be very happy if we didn't fix it but… it wasn't anything life threatening."

The two girls looked at each other before Tex moved over so Sis could sit down. While the two hadn't got along really well when they had first met but now what you would consider best friends. Or what best friends would be if one wasn't a badass mercenary with a love of hurting people and the other a colour-blind and slightly, stupid slut.

"So Church told me that you've been doing Tucker since I've been gone." Tex remarked with a sly smile.

Sis blushed, "Yes… for about two weeks now. He's very good."

Tex threw up her hands, "SIS! I didn't need to know that!"

"Sorry… I keep forgetting you're not like my friends back home."

"I don't think I'm like any other girl full stop, Sis."

Sis laughed, "Yeah. That's about right."

"Well now everyone can be happy cause the slut and the man-whore have gotten together. It's a perfect match!"

"Hey!" Sis exclaimed as she picked up a pillow and threw it at Tex, "That's not very nice!"

"I know… but it's true."

"Yeah…I have to give that one to you."

Tucker put his head around the door and saw Sis and Tex both holding pillows and couldn't resist a smile, "Oh… girly pillow fight! Let's see some clothes ripping action!"

Sis and Tex looked at each other before giving Tucker almost identical evil stares. They both got off the bed and started throwing the pillows at Tucker. He quickly ran down the hall away from Tex's room with his tail between his legs.

Junior, back from the caves where Tex and Church had left him, fell into step with his father and started to laugh.

"That's not very funny, Junior." He remarked to his kid.

"Yeah it is." Church called from out of his room.

"No it's not!" Tucker whinged.

"It is Tucker." Caboose replied as he headed down the hallway towards Tex's room.

"God… is everyone against me?" Tucker asked to nobody in particular.

"Blurg!" cried Junior.

"Yes!" called everyone else.

Tucker threw up his hands and left the Base in a huff.

**In** Grif's room, Dexter and Dick were having a little heart-to-heart about themselves, life before the military, life at Bloodgulch and how they felt about telling Donut about their biggest secret.

"Do you think he'll tell Sarge?" Dexter Grif asked as he turned and ran a hand over Dick's arm.

Simmons smiled as he watched Grif move his hand up and down his arm, "Probably not… but why would that be a problem?"

"Because Sarge doesn't like me already cause I never wanted to join the army and he's homophobic so if he finds out about us…"

"He's homophobic? I never knew that."

"It really isn't that hard to figure out Dick."

"Maybe… but isn't it you who said that trying to figure out what's going on in other people's heads is too much work?"

"Yeah… most of the time," Grif pulled himself up into a sitting position and gave a small tug on Simmons equipment, "luckily for me I always know what's on your mind."

The pair descended into giggles as they got up from the bed to report for duty to Sarge.

**Donut** sighed as he listened to his teammates giggle-fest. He realised that maybe coming out about his feelings may be good for him. Simmons and Grif certainly seemed happier since they had revealed to him their true orientations. Maybe he should do the same… if Caboose was willing to help. He wondered if his feelings for the funny, blue-armoured blonde had been picked up on at all or even replicated… did the Blue solider have any feelings for him at all?

"**Tex?"** Caboose stuck his head around her door to see the girls still talking on the Freelancer's bed, "Can I talk to you for a second? I need help."

Tex looked up at the blonde and saw the worried, almost deer-in-the-headlights look in Caboose's eyes and realised that Caboose really needed someone to talk to right now, even if it had to be her.

"Sure Caboose, Sis…" Tex turned to the blonde woman with a rueful look.

"It's ok, Tex. It looks like Caboose really needs the help. I'll go see if Tucker needs cheering up after we all laughed at him." Sis remarked.

"Just please keep it down… it's so hard to think with you two screaming away with your 'cheering up' sessions." Tex laughed.

Sis threw the pillow she was holding at Tex and patted Caboose on the shoulder before heading out to the roof without a word.

"Well sit down Caboose, it looks like this may be a long talk." Tex ordered.

Caboose looked nervous as he sat down, "Can we keep this private?"

"Sure," Tex reassured him as she got up and closed the door, "so what's up that's got you so nervous?"

Caboose looked down before replying, "I need your advice Texie…"

"I guessed that… so what is it?"

"I'm confused… about what I should feel."

Tex raised an eyebrow as her purple eyes bored into Caboose's steel-coloured ones, "What do you mean by 'what you should feel', Caboose?"

"All my life I was told it was wrong to feel this way… I mean girls never like me, that way, and I don't like girls in that way either."

"Meaning?" Tex asked, a small touch of anger appearing in her voice.

Caboose backed down slightly, "I like girls, like you Texie, as friends and I think you're very pretty but… when I see this guy… I tummy feels all weird. Like I drank gasoline again but in a good way this time. It does little flip-flops but-"

"You were told growing up that men don't feels these things for men, right?"

"Yeah… my fifth grade teacher said I'd be damned to hell!"

"Well just become a Satanist like me then!" Tex remarked with a smile.

A shocked look came across Caboose's face and Tex threw her head back with a full-throated laugh that made goose bumps appear on Caboose's arms with the sexuality of it. He smiled when he realised that Texie was joking about him becoming a Satanist and upon the realisation that this was the first truly happy laugh he had ever heard from the usually pissed off Freelancer.

"I've never really heard you really laugh before Tex… it sounds really nice. A little creepy too though." Caboose admitted.

"I've never really felt like laughing like that since… for a very long time."

Caboose gave her a sympathetic smile, "Since that meanie got in your head."

"Yeah," Tex looked at him carefully, "how do you know?"

"Remember… after you died the first time he got into my head. He was really mean and scary. I didn't want to do my laugh for a while either… but then I'm naturally a happier person than you."

"Right… so anyway. Don't listen to your fifth grade teacher Caboose. Your God created love for everyone and something tells me that if you just happen to fall for a guy… God won't punish you for it."

Caboose actually seemed to think about the truth of her words for a moment before nodding as his face broke out in a huge grin, "Yeah… God did allow us to love whoever we chose. Even you Tex."

"Even me Caboose? I'm too much of a bitch to love or be loved."

"No you're not!" exclaimed Caboose as he walked out the door.

Caboose walked down the hall past Sis, Tucker and Church's rooms. He paused in his walk to take a quick peek at his commander who was napping on his bed with something clutched in his hands. Caboose walked in and pulled the blanket up over his boss and saw what his commander was holding onto so tight… a picture of Church and Texie on a beach with his arm around her and the two of them smiling at the camera.

Caboose looked back towards Tex's room sadly, "If only you could see the way he looks at you, Texie. If only."

**At** Red Base Sarge was screaming out orders at a breakneck pace and as usual… was being ignored by everyone but Simmons.

"Simmons, I want you to secure our perimeter. We may never know when those Blues will launch another attack."

"Yes sir!" barked Simmons with a brisk salute as he took off to do as ordered.

"Princess Peach, I want you to take stock today. Don't leave anything out ammo, food, medical and anything else we can run out of!"

"It's lightish-red." muttered Donut under his breath before he too snapped a salute and went off to do as ordered.

"Grif, I want you on sentry duty. Keep an eye on those Blues and if you happen to get shot… make sure we know so we can get ready for the next attack."

"Thanks for your concern, sir." Growled Grif as he too took off.

"_Don't worry, honey. When I've finished the perimeter work I'll come up and see you."_ Simmons voice came gently over the radio.

"I'm looking forward to it." Grif replied before switching off the mike. He grabbed his sniper rifle and headed up to the cliffs to spend hour after boring hour watching the Blues.

"**Princess** Peach, go do stock," Grumbled Donut as he sorted though crate after crate of goods, "God Dad, I know you don't want anyone to know we're related but shit… you could treat me better."

"What are you going on about Private?" asked Sarge as he came into the storage room.

"Nothing Sarge." Donut replied, his voice deep with suppressed anger.

"No something is up, Franklin. Your voice goes deeper when you're angry and you're trying to hide it, just like your mother's." Sarge remarked, his voice soft with concern.

"I'm fine Dad… just why are you so mean to me?"

"I've got to treat all my Private's equally Franklin, you know that."

"Do I?" Donut growled as he turned to face his father, his face and eyes dark with anger.

Sarge looked into the angry, hazel eyes of his son. He was so like his mother, the deep voice when he is angry, the hazel eyes with hints of amber in them, the little button of a nose and the fine chocolate brown hair. Hell, Franklin's laugh sounded just like his dead wife's. She had been dead for five years but the pain was still raw for the old, grizzled Sargent and the constant reminder of his wife in his son's face sometimes just made the pain worse.

"Well do I?" screamed Donut in frustration.

"You do or at least you should. You won't be allowed to stay if people find out we're related or the others will think I'm favouring you."

"But you don't," Donut cried, his eyes being to water, "some days it's a toss up of who you treat worse… me or Grif. You favour Simmons, Dad. You always have. Maybe you should adopt him and cast me out of the family for real… you almost did after mum died!"

"Son-" Sarge whispered as Donut shoved past and headed out the door of the Base and ran along the canyon.

**Grif** saw the pink private leave the Base but didn't think much of it. He was more interested in the fight that had broken out between Tex and Church over a Blue Base. The two of them were really going at it. Tex was throwing Church around while Church was landing some go punches of his own. Grif smiled as he saw his sister cheer on the only other female in Bloodgulch as that annoying teal-armoured one, Tusker or something like that, was cheering on his friend and commander. Grif wouldn't admit it to Sis but he didn't like the way the teal one kept staring at his sister's arse when he thought no one was watching. He had to think of a way to keep him away from her. Maybe he should go down to Blue Base sometime and talk to his sister. His little, internal thought was disrupted when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He smiled at Simmons as the maroon-armoured solider wrapped his arms around Grif's waist. The two just stood there and watched the fight in a friendly silence.

**The** rage just kept boiling and boiling inside of him. He damn near couldn't take it. His father had never shown him real love. All he could remember from his childhood was brief moments with his father watching TV before he would go off again to fight another war, train new recruits or something else to do with the army. His mum had been the only one to ever care for him. It was her who taught him how to tie his shoelaces, took him to his first day of school, held him when he was hurt and taught him to drive. She had been the only one there to see him graduate collage with his Arts degree. His father had said that his education was a waste of time. When his mum had died due to brain cancer… his dad never spoke to him. It was almost as though he couldn't bear to look at the son they had made. Sure he did look and sometimes act like his mum but surely… his dad could take a genuine interest in him. Hell, the only time his dad had ever praised him was when he had joined the Red Army. All Donut wanted was a kind word or even a hug, someone to love him as he was and it was obvious that his father wasn't going to give him that. Donut just couldn't take it anymore he screamed all his frustrations, a pure rage-filled howl. The felt the tears forming behind his closed eyes and made a break for the caves… so nobody could see his tears and tease him for it.

**Caboose** was also watching the fight. Well it wasn't a real fight… just a practice match that gave Tex and Church a chance to test out their newly reanimated bodies. He didn't really want to pick a side but it looked like Tex was going to kick Church's arse… again. He laughed when Church threw a punch towards Tex's head but she dodged it by flinging herself to the floor. She then slid forward between Church's legs and kicked hers out like scissors. This made Church lose his footing and fall down into a very painful looking split. Church let out a grunt of pain as he hit the ground and Caboose saw a flicker of pink at the corner of his eye. He turned his back on the fight a saw Donut standing in the middle of the canyon. Something seemed to be wrong with Donut, he was clutching at himself as though… something was hurting him. Caboose watched as Donut threw his head back and he heard the howl that came from his throat. It was so full of pain, rage and sadness that Caboose felt his heart stop for a moment. He watched Donut run for the caves and debated with himself for a moment before he followed the Red Army Private into the caves. Leaving Tucker and Sis to cheer on the fighters.

**Ripping **his armour off, Donut collapsed to his knees in the privacy of the cave as he struggled to control his emotions and not give way to tears. He knelt there in just a thin, grey shirt and worn cargo pants that had started off life as dark green but had degraded to an ugly snot green.

Caboose came around the corner of the cave quietly and felt his heart break slightly as he watched Donut, the happy Donut he had laughed with just hours ago dig at his arms and draw blood. What seemed worse was that Donut didn't seem to realise that he was hurting himself. He moved forward and hugged the other man from behind tightly.

Donut gasped at the feeling of someone's arms around him and looked up into concerned grey eyes. He numbly tried to get out of the other man's hold but Caboose just held on tighter until Donut stopped struggling. Caboose gently lifted the pink Private's hands away from his arm and placed a tissue over the cuts Donut had made in the flesh of his arm. The little half moons left by Donuts fingernails slowly filled with blood that Caboose gently wiped away. As Donut felt the other man tend to his physical wounds his emotional ones began to open up again and he lost the fight to hold back tears.

Caboose sat down and drew the other man into his lap and held him as Donut's whole body shook with the force of the sobs that clawed their way out of his throat.

When he had finally got his tears under control, Donut looked up to see that Caboose was still just holding him and rubbing his back gently to comfort him. Donut pulled himself out of Caboose's lap and sat back. He watched the other man and waited for the blonde to laugh or make fun of his tears. But that wasn't what happened; instead Caboose lent forward and placed a comforting hand on Donut's shoulder, his grey eyes soft as he looked at the brunette.

"Are you ok, Franklin?" Caboose asked softly.

"No… no I'm not, Michael."

"What's wrong?"

"Just family problems… I mean team problems."

"Like what?"

"Sarge is being really unfair to me again and it just kind of reminds me about how my father treated me after my mum died and… I just couldn't take it anymore. I just want someone to like me, at least a little but it won't happen. Simmons and Grif are too wrapped up in their own happiness to notice and my father-"

"Wait," Caboose interrupted with a shocked look on his face, "the sergeant is your father?"

Donut looked miserable, "Yes but you can't tell anyone… he doesn't want anyone to know."

"OK… I won't tell anyone. So your dad is really mean to you both at home and here and you just want someone to truly love you… right?" Caboose asked.

Donut blushed and looked at the floor, "Yeah… it sounds really silly but yeah… that's what I want."

"It doesn't sound silly. It's what everybody wants, to feel loved and have someone to love in return."

"You sound like a romantic at heart, Michael." Donut laughed.

"Well I am."

"Yeah well… there is nobody here who loves me… not even my own father-"

Caboose reached forward and placed a finger over Donut's lips, "That's not true… I… I love you Franklin."

Donut digested this information for a second before he lent forward and whispered, "I love you too, Michel."

The two Privates lent forward and placed a gentle kiss on each other's lips. Donut reached up and pulled Caboose down so the two were now lying on the floor of the cave. The two separated and began to laugh. The two embraced, and all their troubles just seemed to flow away for those blessed moments in each other's arms. The two kissed once more before they drifted off into a gentle sleep, content at last.

"**You** want some more, Church?" laughed Tex.

She was standing a good twenty feet away from Church as he lay back on the dirt in front of Blue Base. He was lying in that particular spot because that was where he had landed after Tex had thrown him during their fight.

"No… I don't want anymore. You win Tex… you win." Church gasped.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Sis, "pay up buster!"

Tucker looked pissed as he reached into the back pocket of his armour and drew out his wallet. He quickly opened it and pulled out 100 and handed it to his lover.

Tex looked at the two of them and raised an eyebrow, "You bet on us?"

Sis nodded as she put half the money into her purse. She held out the other 50 to the Freelancer, "You can have half, after all… you did all the work."

Tex took the money with a smile and laughed, "If you're going to do this every time I fight… I ought to kick everyone's arses a little more."

Sis also laughed, "Yeah, we could make a killing!"

Tucker walked over to the girls, "Speaking of arses… where's Caboose?"

The girls looked around for their comrade before Tex remarked, "Don't know, I'll go look for him."

"Can I have some help first?" Church called weakly, he still hadn't moved from that spot.

Tex walked over to Church and assessed the damage. Since Church had fought wearing only a pair of shorts she could see a few bruises forming on his arm and chest and when he rolled onto his side she could see the top of her last 'love bite' from earlier peaking over the top of his pants. The others had long since faded away. His dark, spiky brown-black hair was sweat mattered and his cobalt-blue eyes were bright amongst the blood that encircled his eye due to a cut in his eyebrow. Tex reached down, grabbed his arm and pulled Church to his feet.

Church felt her pull and was a little too slow to correct himself and fell onto her. He gasped as her hands touched one of the bruises on his chest and he found himself, once again, with a massive hard on. Judging by the amused expression on Tex's face… she'd noticed that too.

Tex could feel Church's hard on through the thin material of his pants and gently pushed him away. She whispered into his ear, "We'll use that later but first… we got to find Caboose."

Church let out a little, sad moan before smiling at Tex and nodding, "Tex you go check along the cliffs, I'll search the caves, Tucker and Sis… you can search the Base and the surrounding area. Radio in if you find Caboose."

"Yes sir!" replied Sis with a sly smile and a salute before she dragged Tucker into Blue Base.

"Let's try and find him fast… I don't want all my 'hard work' to go to waste." Tex remarked as she headed off along the right edge of the canyon.

"Yeah." Sighed Church as he took off for the caves.

**Caboose** felt movement under his arm and began to wake. He opened his eyes to find Donut already wake and watching his face as his hand slid up and down his armoured chest.

"Do you know that you look really cute when you're sleeping?" asked Donut with a cheeky twinkle in his eyes.

"No. I've never seen myself sleeping, silly."

"Well… now you know!" Donut remarked as he gave a quick, gentle slap to Caboose's stomach.

"You know… if you don't want to go back to your Base and your dad… you could always stay with me at Blue Base."

Donut smiled ruefully at his love, "Something tells me Tex and Church won't like that."

"Texie would probably let it go cause I told her I was scared to tell someone I loved them-"

"And who would that be?" Donut asked.

Caboose chuckled, "You silly, and Church shouldn't complain… he's too much of a chicken shit to tell Tex he still loves her."

"I'm sorry, I know she's your team-mate and everything but… she's a real bitch. I don't know how anyone could like her."

"She can be a bitch when she's angry or she doesn't like someone but she can be nice too. It was her who gave me the courage to face my feelings and tell you how I felt."

"Who would of thought it?"

"Yeah… wait… do you hear that?" Caboose asked as he turned his head towards the cave opening.

Footsteps could be heard approaching them; the two tensed as they prayed whoever was coming would go away.

**Church** walked along the cave wall, a spring in his step. He just had to finish searching this cave and then he could go meet Tex in her room so they could have some fun after their little practice bout. He came around the corner to see a pile of pink armour and a blue helmet lying discarded against a wall and the figures of Caboose and Donut hugging on the floor of the cave.

Church's jaw dropped, "OH MY GOD!"

_Secrets Revealed_

**Caboose**, Church, Tucker and Tex were having an all-out screaming match back at Blue Base while Donut, Sis and Junior were huddling in a corner.

"You go off without telling anyone, we think you're missing and we, as in me, find you in a cave hugging a Red Team member! What the hell are we meant to think?" Church screamed in Caboose's face.

"You love a Red… a guy Red… that is so wrong, Caboose!" Tucker yelled.

"Why does it matter who I was with?" Caboose shrieked.

"You guys are being real assholes! Can't you leave them alone?" Tex roared.

"He's in love with a Red… the same Red that killed you, in case you didn't notice!" Church yelled at Tex.

"Yeah I noticed, but still he's happy so we should leave him alone. Yes he should have told us where he was going but I'm happy for him." Tex shot back.

"At least I'm the only one brave enough to say how I really feel!" Caboose bellowed suddenly.

Everyone just stopped and stared at him. Caboose's face was red, his eyes almost glowed with his anger and his hair was all messed up from where Church had grabbed it to drag him back to Base.

"What do you mean, Caboose?" Tucker asked.

Caboose turned to him and pointed his finger, "You're too scared to commit to Sis because you fear she'll leave you just like you've been leaving chicks you're whole life. You're also too scared to come out about your relationship cause that means dealing with Grif and you think he's going to kick your ass!" Tucker just shut his mouth and stared… Caboose was right.

The blonde then turned to Tex with the same angry look, "You say you have nothing to fear but you hide away from us because you fear that what O'Malley made you do… he really didn't make you do at all. It was you who wanted to kill, hurt or throw away everyone that loved or cared for you and that the rage he filled you with… you won't be able to control and you fear you'll lose it a kill everyone. But surely you can see that's not true. You always gave me helpful advice when I needed it most, you'll defend us against anyone and you really do care for the people here on the Blue Team. How could you truly do that if that evil you did when O'Malley was in your head was not because of O'Malley at all… but you?"

Tex smiled at Caboose and simply said, "Thanks."

Caboose then turned to Church, "You're the worst out of everyone here… you are nothing but a coward. You-"

"Shut up Caboose." Church warned.

"No… I won't," Caboose shot back, "you are a coward because you just cannot bring yourself to-"

"Caboose… Shut Up!" Church ordered, his voice deepening with anger.

"You can't bring yourself, or let anyone else, tell-"

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!!" yelled Church as he launched himself at Caboose, knocking the smaller man to the floor.

Tex moved forward to pull Church off Caboose but the blonde was putting up a good fight and seemed determined to finish what he was saying.

Caboose punched Church and shouted, "You're to afraid to tell Tex that you love her… you love her so much that you would die for her and when the ship blew… you almost killed yourself!"

Tex and Church just froze. She looked at him and he looked at her.

Tex just shook her head, "You yell at Caboose for having the courage to tell us he is in love with Donut… and you almost kill him just because he has the balls to tell me that you love me?"

"I didn't want to tell you cause I thought it would make you run away again." Church admitted.

"Run away again? What the hell do you mean?" Tex demanded.

"That night… that night you told me it was over… I said I had something important to tell you. What I wanted to say was that I loved you and I wanted to marry you… maybe not right then but sometime after we were finished in the army."

Tex's face showed nothing as she asked, "You wanted to propose?"

Church nodded, "I had a ring and everything… I just didn't get a chance to ask before you dumped me."

Church then lent back and reached under his armour and pulled out the chain that his dog tags hung on. Hidden between the tags was a thick circle of silver. Church undid the chain and pulled off the silver circle. He reached out and handed it to Tex.

She looked down at the ring in her hand and gasped at the beauty of it. The ring was made out of the same wrought silver as her hair clip and designed the exact same way. It even had a fingernail-sized black diamond in the shape of a heart placed in the centre. It was obvious that the same person who had her hairclip had made this ring. She looked at Church's hard work and wondered again how hard he had worked to save up for the diamond that could of rested on her finger. Her chest hurt as she looked at the ring, Church must have spent so much time and effort on it and… she'd thrown him away.

Church watched as Tex's eyes watered slightly and a sad smile crossed her face, "I know now that asking for your hand in marriage isn't a great idea but… maybe would you be my girl?"

Tex looked up at Church, she smiled a full happy grin and slid the ring onto her ring finger but on her right hand, "Sure… I'll be your girl… for a while anyway!"

Church laughed and got off Caboose and rushed over to Tex and hugged her tight.

Tex looked into his open, happy face and realised just how much she really meant to him. Even after all they had been through.

Church released her with a sheepish smile on his face, "Sorry… I know how you don't like me hugging you."

Tex reached forward and grabbed Church's shirt and pulled him into a kiss.

Sis, Tucker, Caboose and Donut just stood there and stared as they watched Tex and Church's little make-out session. None of them knew what to say except a little alien love child that knew the perfect words for this moment, "BOW CHICKA HONK HONK!"

Tex and Church pulled away from their embrace and smiled guilty at the rest of the group. The two then looked at each other and Tex raised an eyebrow.

Church nodded reluctantly, "Caboose… I don't mind if you want to date or do whatever with Donut but it would be nice if you would tell us where you're going, ok?"

Caboose nodded happily and placed his arm around Donut's waist.

The Red Private smiled at Caboose and then nodded to Church, "Thank you Church."

"Don't thank me… thank her. Anyway we've got a spare room if you want to use that if you stay… overnight." Church laughed.

"Thanks Tex but all of you deserve thanks… after all, you didn't shoot me." Donut remarked.

"It was a close thing though Donut," Tex replied, a wicked smile plastered on her face, "I would of shot you if it had been anyone but Caboose holding you."

Donut gulped audibly and ducked his head, "Yeah well I better get back to my Base."

"Alright, just leave me… all alone… I don't care." Caboose whinged playfully, his mouth in a little fake pout.

Donut reached over and kissed Caboose on the cheek, "I'll be back tonight but I better go home before they think something has happened."

"We'll see you tonight, Donut." Tex replied as she pointed to the door.

Donut waved and headed out of Blue Base and along the canyon back to his Team.

**Tex** looked at the ring on her finger a smiled, she didn't know anyone who would of thought that she would promise herself to Church in this lifetime. She knew she hadn't.

"Would anyone like some chocolate-chip cookies? I was going to bake some and I was wondering if anyone else wanted one." Tex offered quietly.

"You can cook?" Tucker asked, a surprised expression on his face.

"Tex is a damn good cook… and the best thing is that her specialty is deserts and sweets." Church remarked, "Her apple pie is to die for."

"Thank you Church. So does anyone want one?" Tex asked.

"Me! Me! I want a cookie!" called Caboose from the lounge room as he set up the stereo.

"I'll have some, if you don't mind." Sis replied.

"Me too." Church remarked.

"Yeah I'll try some." Tucker murmured.

So Tex got to work baking her cookies. Although she was a badass mercenary she did enjoy some girly things, shopping, cooking, long bubble baths (with or without company) and she had a major soft spot for leather, high-heeled boots. They were her favourite type of shoes; she had about five pairs of them.

Tex put the flour, sugar, butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl and turned on the mixer. She swore under her breath constantly as her hair kept falling into her eyes.

Church looked up from the coffee machine and asked her what was wrong.

"My fucking hair is getting in the way again!" Tex growled.

"Here, use this." Church remarked as he ducked to his room and came back with her hairclip. He came up behind her and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. He then flicked it over and clipped it into place.

Church lent over and kissed her neck, "There you go."

"Thank you Church. Now hurry up and make that coffee… I want some!" Tex ordered.

"Yes ma'am!"

**Tucker** quietly leaned over and whispered in Sis' ear, "Do you want to go to my Rock?"

Sis gave him a sexy smile as she eyed the happy faces of her best friend and commander. Tex was almost flying around the kitchen baking cookies for everyone while Church made coffee and Caboose danced around the living room.

"Well… do you want to?" Tucker asked impatiently.

"Sure," replied Sis softly, "I could use a little pick me up."

"A little 'pick me up'? I thought I was bigger and better than that!"

Sis turned and gave him a small kiss, "You are… most of the time. By the way, was Caboose right? Don't you want to commit to me cause you just think I'll dump your ass the next time I see a hot guy go by?"

Tucker blushed, "Yeah… you know the whole karma of the idea. I've left so many cause I've found something better so I just fear that in revenge… you'll do the same."

"You're a great guy Tucker… when you're not being an obnoxious prick and you're the best lay I've had in a long time… so why would I give you up?"

"I didn't know that… so… to the Rock?" Tucker offered with a sly smile.

Sis put her hand around his waist, "To Tucker's Rock for some absolutely mind-blowing sex."

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow!"

**Grif** was still spying on Blue Base from his position up high on the cliffs, he had missed the outcome of the fight and what had happened afterward due to the fact that Simmons had picked that particular time to give him a spine-bending orgasm. He was now back on his job cause Sarge had called Simmons away to do another job.

"Why is he even making me do this? They just stay in their Base doing whatever they do and nothing ever happen-"

Grif's little complaint was cut short as he saw his sister leading the pervert teal-armoured one across the area behind the Base towards a rock decorated with teal-coloured graffiti. He watched the two of them disappear behind the rock and wondered what the hell his sister was up to. When he saw a flash of yellow fly out from behind the rock a horrible thought entered his head.

"Oh no… that bastard better hope he isn't doing what I think he's doing!" Grif hissed.

Grif left his post of the cliffs and started running towards Tucker's infamous Rock. As he got closer he heard the giggles of his sister and a deep, masculine chuckle. Grif came around the rock to find his sister naked and Tucker standing over her minus his pants and with a massive erection.

"You fucking prick!" growled Grif.

Sis and Tucker looked at him with identical worried, almost scared looks on their faces.

Tucker simply said, "Shit!" and took off.

Grif ran of after him, ignoring a call from his sister to leave Tucker alone.

Sis grabbed her clothes and swore under her breath as she tried to get them on in time so she could go out and stop Grif, or at least minimise the damage done to Tucker.

"**HELLLP! **HELLP! CHURCH! TEX! CABOOSE! ANYONE! HELP!"

Tex looked up from the cookies she was shaping. She looked around at her teammates. Caboose was still blissfully dancing around the lounge room and Church as reading something over his coffee.

"Did any of you guys hear that?" Tex asked.

Caboose stopped dancing and paused the music, "Hear what?"

"HELP! OH GOD! SOMEONE HELP!" came a scream from outside.

"That sounded like Tucker." Church remarked as he put his coffee down.

The three looked at each other before they ran forward to the lockers and began putting their armour on and arming themselves.

As per usual, Tex finished first and was armed with her signature double Sub-Machine Guns. Surprisingly Caboose was next with the traditional assault rifle with Church last with his sniper rifle. The three headed out the door to see a surprising, and for some disturbing sight. Tucker was running around, minus his pants with Grif chasing him. Tex saw out of the corner of her eye Sis pulling her jeans on, her bra secured and in place. Her attention was drawn back to Tucker with the sounds of gunshots and a scream of pain. Grif had now pulled out his pistol and was launching shots in the general direction of Tucker's ass. Unfortunately for Tucker, Grif was a pretty good shot so Tucker now had two bullet holes in his arse.

"Who bets that Grif came around the side of Tucker's Rock and found her buck naked and him with his pants down?" Tex remarked.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Church replied, his eyes locked onto the action in front of him.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Caboose asked.

"S'pose we should." Tex and Church replied. The two laughed at their perfect timing.

"ALRIGHT! EVERYBODY SETTLE DOWN!" Tex bellowed and grabbed everyone's attention by firing her SMGs into the air before aiming them at Grif's nose.

As ordered everyone stopped and stared at Tex. Grif's eyes went wide at the sight of two SMGs pointing at his nose.

"Now what the hell happened?" Tex asked.

"Me and Sis were about to have some bow chicka bow wow but he showed up and just started attacking me!" Tucker answered sheepishly.

"You were about to fuck my virgin sister… what am I suppose to do? I have to protect her." Grif shot back.

Sis finally emerged fully clothed and placed her hands on her hips as she faced her brother, "Grif… I haven't been a virgin for years and you have no right to dictate who I sleep with!"

Grif's jaw dropped, "But Sis… he's a player. He'll dump you in a heartbeat."

"I'm a player too Grif. Hell, when Tex found out we were together she said 'so everyone can be happy cause the slut and the man-whore have gotten together'!" Sis pointed out.

Grif looked at little shocked at the remark and hung his head, "I'm sorry Sis… I never knew you were a whore!"

"Hey I'm not a whore, I don't get paid to do what I do!" Sis growled before smiling and continuing, "I'm just a slut."

"Right… I'm sorry sister."

Sis sighed and walked forward to hug her brother, "You don't have to look after me all the time Grif… you just have to be there when I need you."

"Alright… I can do that." He hugged his sister before turning angry eyes to Grif, "You break her heart and I'll break your balls!"

Tucker gulped as Tex laughed, "You'll have to fight me for the honour!"

Everyone burst into laughter and with one more hug, Grif left to return to Red Base.

**Tucker** was lying down on the examination table, his bare, bleeding arse visible to all in the room.

"God, this view is so wrong!" Church moaned, the Blue leader was lending a hand to Tex as she set to work on removing the bullets in Tucker's butt.

"You think that view is bad? You should try mine," replied Tex. She was standing on Tucker's other side digging at a bullet lodged in his hip, "I've got to stand here and dig this bullet out of his hip and to do that… I have to see his limited equipment."

"Gross!" Church exclaimed.

"You're just jealous of Sis, Tex. She gets to play with ALL this and you just get that!" Tucker joked as he pointed at Church.

Tex laughed and jabbed Tucker hard with the forceps in an area of his arse where there was no aesthetic.

"Ow… bitch! That hurt!" Tucker complained.

"It was meant to… and by the way… Church has got a much larger piece of equipment than you," she risked a quick peek at Tucker's erection, "even when he's soft."

"No way!" moaned Tucker as Tex got back to work and Church laughed at the indignity of it all.

**Back** at Red Base, Donut, Grif and Simmons were recounting their respective days. Donut was lying down the floor while Grif and Simmons snuggled on the couch. Sarge had been missing for a few hours now but nobody on the Red Team were too anxious to find him.

"So yeah, Tex won the fight and the Blues… didn't kill me when they found out that I like Caboose." Donut finished with a sigh.

"Wow… we would most likely kill Caboose if the roles had been reversed." Simmons remarked.

"No… Sarge would have killed them both cause he's so homophobic." Grif pointed out, before leaning in for a kiss from Simmons.

Almost as though he had heard his Team discussing him, Sarge chose that particular moment to walk into the lounge room of his Base.

Sarge looked on the room and saw his son lying back on the floor, minus his helmet and his two other Privates… making out on the couch.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?" Sarge screamed.

Simmons and Grif quickly broke apart and pulled on their helmets.

"Nothing Sir!" the pair replied.

"DON'T LIE TO ME! YOU FAIRYS GET OUT OF THIS BASE RIGHT NOW! I will not have this Team's fine name be tarnished by a pair of queers!" Sarge bellowed.

Simmons and Grif looked at each other and headed to their rooms. Within minutes their bags were packed and they headed out the door.

Sarge looked at his son as Donut also headed into his room. Ten minutes later Donut came out of his room, also with a fully laden bag.

"Where are you going Franklin? Now we can have some good man to man and father to son talks!" Sarge asked quietly.

"No we can't father," Donut replied softly as he dropped his bag and looked his father in the eye, "if you're going to throw Grif and Simmons out for being gay… then I better get out of here too."

"Why? You're my son. Not some queer freak like those two."

"Yes I am Dad, I am a proud gay and I too have found love in this box canyon."

As his father's face crumbled, Donut bent over and picked up his bag.

"Who? Who… do… you lo… love… here, Franklin?" Sarge stuttered.

Donut got to the door without replying and turned back to his father with a defiant look in his hazel eyes, "Blue Private Michael J. Caboose, Dad. That's the love of my life."

And with those words, Donut turned on his heel and ran out of Red Base to catch up with his teammates who were standing in the middle of the canyon confused.

"**So** where are we going to go, Dexter?" asked Simmons as he looked through his visor at his lover.

"I don't know, Dick… I just don't know." Grif whispered sadly.

"GUYS! GUYS!" called Donut.

The pair looked over to their former Base and saw the small figure of Donut running towards them loaded down with his bag.

"What the hell does he want?" asked Grif.

Simmons looked at him and shrugged, "I don't know."

The lovers watched as Donut caught up to him gasping and panting.

Donut heaved as he dragged his bag up to the top of the hill and looked at the pair. The couple looked back at him as he gasped for breath.

The pink private gasped, "What… are… we… going… to… do?"

Grif and Simmons looked at each other and their teammate and shrugged helplessly.

Donut thought for a moment and remarked, "Why don't we go over to Blue Base and see if we could live with them?"

"Why would we do that?" Grif asked

"Why not?" replied Simmons after a moment of thought.

"We need a place to stay, Sarge won't let us back into the Base, the Blues have some room and my boyfriend lives there… they may just let us live there if we ask nicely." Donut suggested.

"NO WAY!" Grif shouted.

"Why not?" Simmons asked, "It sounds like a good plan."

"I can't live with those people!"

"Why not? If they can give us a room… I think it could be a good way to go."

"But that bitch... she'll kill us!" Grif pointed out, "and we're suppose to be fighting them! We're in a war after all!"

"Sure Tex and Church might not be happy about the idea at first but think. Your sister and Caboosey should be able to talk them down and you've already proven that you can kick Tucker's arse so I think it might just work out for all of us." Simmons shot back.

"All we can do is try. After all, they might not let us stay but we need a place and it may just be our best bet." Donut replied.

"Alright… we'll go ask but if we get shot… I'm gonna be pissed."

The Blues just sat in silence as the Reds told them what had happened at their Base and what they wanted to do. Tex's face was completely neutral while Tucker and Sis seemed to be trying to hold back smiles and laughter. Caboose was nodding to some of the suggestions and Church… well Church wasn't doing anything.

When the Reds had finished talking the Blues just looked at each other. Church and Tex seemed to size each other up and when Church nodded Tex turned to the Reds and said, "Sure you can stay. Simmons and Grif will have to bunk together in the spare room and Donut can sleep in Caboose's room. If that's ok with everyone?"

"Sure." Replied Church

Caboose nodded happily while Tucker and Sis just shrugged and gave their consent.


	6. One Last Surprise

**Doc** sighed as he headed towards Blue Base. It had been 2 months since the Reds had moved in and everything had finally settled down. What had helped things along was a little suggestion from Caboose for everyone to chip in so they could buy a pool. Finally construction had been completed and it was now up to Doc to tell everyone so they could give it a fun-filled christening.

The entered the Base and headed along the hallway to everyone's rooms. Doc couldn't express how happy he was now that all of the sleeping quarters had been soundproofed. He was sick of being woken up all the time by the happy screaming. Sis, Tucker and Church were still the worst offenders. Then again he couldn't really blame Church for being loud… he 'd seen some of the marks left by the sex with Tex. He laughed at his own wit before knocking on Tucker's door.

**Tucker** stopped mid-stroke, "Who the hell is knocking now?"

Sis looked up at him, "Maybe it's Doc tellin' us the pool is finished?"

Tucker dragged himself out of the bed and chucked on a shirt, "Bet you 20 it's not."

"You're on."

**Doc** stepped back as he saw Tucker open up the door with only a long shirt on.

"What do you want, Doc?" Tucker growled.

"The pool is finished… you did ask me to let you know when it was done." Doc replied, keeping his eyes away from Tucker at all costs.

"Alright… thanks. We'll be there in ten minutes." Tucker murmured as he slammed the door in the medic's face.

Doc breathed a sigh of relief and headed down the hallway to the Red's room.

"**I'm **gonna get you, I'm gonna get you!" Giggled Simmons.

"No you're not… I'm gonna get youuu!" Grif laughed.

The Red's were minus their pants and having a 'sword' fight with their equipment to decide who was going to be the bottom today.

Knock, KNOCK.

Grif groaned and got up and answered the door. The saw Doc standing in the doorway and noticed the medic was avoiding eye contact with him at all costs.

"What do you want, Doc?" asked Simmons as he poked his head around the door.

"I'm just here to let you know… the pool is finished." Doc mumbled.

"Great! Now you can see how hot I look in a pair of swimmers, honey." Simmons remarked to Grif.

"Yeah!" Grif laughed.

"Right… I'll just be going then." Doc muttered as he quickly left the room and shut the door.

**Donut** was again watching the face of his lover as he slept. He loved the careless, happy smile the blonde man in his arms had when he was sleeping. Donut had a happy, contented smile on his own face as he tightened his arms and pulled Caboose in closer to his body. Donut's head popped up when he heard a knock on the door.

He gently unwrapped his arms from around Caboose's waist and opened the door.

Doc smiled as he noticed that finally someone was fully dressed, "The pool is ready, Donut."

Donut did a little happy dance and ran over to the bed. He lent over and shook Caboose awake. The blonde just stayed completely still as his grey eyes struggled to fight off the sleep they had been enjoying just seconds ago.

"What's up, Donut?" Caboose yawned groggily.

"The pools done."

"Really?"

"Yep." Replied Doc from the doorway.

Caboose then jumped up and did his own version of the happy which Donut quickly joined in. Doc turned and left, shaking his head at the strange behaviour of the couple.

**Doc **hesitated outside the last door. After what he had seen in the other rooms and from what he had heard during the groups established gossip sessions… he really didn't want to go in this room… or even know what was going on in there. In truth, Doc was shit scared of what could be going on in this room.

**Inside **that particular room, Church was chained to the ceiling, his chest bare and his feet dangling about six inches above the ground. He was wearing nothing but a pair of tight, leather pants. His breath came out in ragged gasps.

On the other hand, Tex's breathing was completely normal. She was dressed in a short, black, skin-tight, leather dress that showed plenty of cleavage. Her hair was tied back by her hairclip and Church's ring was still on her finger but she was also wearing a bracelet and choker to go with the ring and hairclip and a pair of thigh-high, black, leather, high-heeled boots. The bracelet, choker and boots had all been presents for her birthday from Church just five days earlier. Now 25 years old, Tex's attitude hadn't changed one bit and for that Church was glad for in her hand was a long, soft leather whip that for the last half hour, Tex had been flicking along his back, chest and arse.

Tex walked around behind the chained Church and flicked her hand back, ready for the next strike. She took a breath as Church readied himself and as her hand moved forward… a knock sounded at the door. Tex stopped her hand and Church moaned as the whip gave him only the lightest tap on his spine, instead of the hard, solid hit he had been expecting.

Tex put down the whip and opened the door, a frown decorating her beautiful face.

Doc looked Tex up and down as he felt his face blush behind his visor and his dick beginning to fill with blood at the sight of the scantly clad Freelancer.

"What do you want, Doc?" asked Tex angrily.

"Um… sorry… but the pool is finished and you ordered me to tell you immediately." Doc spluttered.

"Oh… right," Tex's face softened and she gave the medic a small smile, "I'll go get ready then."

"Alright… well I'm out of here. I got permission to go back to Earth due to my pacifist beliefs so… maybe I'll see you round after the war is over."

"Alright then Dufrane, maybe I'll see you back on Earth." She gave the medic a quick hug before closing the door.

"**So **what was all that about?" asked Church, who was still swinging from the rafters.

"Unchain yourself, Leonard. The pool is done and I want to get changed." Tex ordered as she headed to her drawers.

Church undid the locks and went over to Tex and undid the zipper of her dress for her before going to the bed and throwing on his shirt, "Why should I go? It's not like I haven't seen you naked before."

"I know," Tex replied, she now stood naked in front of him, "but you haven't seen me in my bikini yet and I want it to be a surprise!"

"OK… going then." Church whispered as he kissed her on the lips before heading for the door.

Tex watched Church head for the door and looked down at the whip in her hand, she knew he felt a little disappointed that he didn't get whipped so she drew her arm back and flicked it forward, faster than the eye could follow. The tip of the whip lashed back and was flung forward so fast it broke the sound barrier and gave of the 'crack' that whips are famous for before striking Church firmly across the ass.

Church let out a little moan as he turned and gave Tex the finger before closing the door and heading out to the pool.

**At** the pool, all the guys were playing around at the shallow end waiting for the girls to arrive.

"Any bets on what the girls will be wearing?" Tucker remarked casually.

"No need… here they come… and they're HOT! Well… for girls anyway." Declared Caboose, pointed towards Blue Base.

Tex and Sis were strutting up to the pool, their bodies and outfits on show.

Sis was wearing a bright, teal coloured one piece with a deep cut that divided her chest in half. The opening was held closed with thin belts with golden buckles. The outfit showed off her tight butt, her ample cleavage and the butterfly tattoo that lay on her thigh. Her straight, blonde hair was left out to brush her shoulders when it wasn't fluttering in the wind.

Tex, on the other hand, stuck to her to usual colour scheme of a black, bikini. The top was a halter that curved around to meet a silver ring between her breasts. The tiny triangle of the bottoms curved along her sides and showed off her delicate hips and thin waist. A sparkle of a bellybutton piercing drew the eyes to her flat stomach and she turn to show her almost bare back to the boys and the lonely star tattoo of her home state in the middle of her back.

The heterosexual boys in the pool gasped at the beauty and sexual appeal of their girls and everyone noticed just how much Church and Tucker appreciated the view.

Grif noticed the swelling of Tucker and Church's pants and couldn't resist announcing the occasion with a cheeky, "Boing!"

The girls looked at their guys and laughed before diving into the pool.

Tex swam up to Church and slid herself around his waist and raised herself up so their eyes were on the same level, "Did you enjoy the view, Leonard?"

Church smiled sexily at the Freelancer, "Yes I did Alison… it's a very nice view." He then lowered his head and placed a gentle kiss over her Texas-shaped birthmark.

She groaned softly before a splash forced them apart. They turned and saw Grif with another clump of ice in his hands. Tex raised an eyebrow and Grif shrugged.

"Could you guys get a room? Some of us don't want to see the kinky stuff you two get up to." Simmons remarked as he placed his hand on Grif's thigh.

"I wouldn't mind seeing their kinky action." Tucker laughed

Tex looked at Simmons as she ignored Tucker's statement, "Why do you think me and Church get up to kinky stuff?"

"Don't bullshit Tex," Donut called from the other side of the pool, "Sometimes the next morning, Church comes out of his room and forgets to put a shirt on… we've seen the nail marks, the bruised wrists from handcuffs and some of the bites. If that isn't kinky I don't know what is."

"Yeah, besides… you're such a bitch that I'd be surprised if you weren't into Dominance and Submission." Sis pointed out as she kissed Tucker.

"Alright… alright we'll stop." Tex murmured.

"Hey… who wants to play volleyball?" Caboose asked.

Everyone raised their hands and split into teams, gays vs. straights.

**Sarge** wandered slowly away from his Base, it had been so quiet for the last few months without anyone there but… he wanted his team back, especially his son.

"I'll make it up to you Franklin, I swear." He whispered to himself. He just wondered how he could get to Blue Base to talk to Team without being shot by Church or beaten to a pulp by Tex.

He came over a hill and saw a huge pool right in the middle of the canyon and his first thought was a water-based military exercise. Then he heard the laughter.

He walked in closer and saw his Team, happily playing volleyball in the pool with the Blues.

Tex grabbed the ball and spun it on her finger, "So what are you going to do gays? We're three points up on you and about to win the game."

"We'll see Freelancer… you can't be good at everything!" Declared Donut

Sarge watched his son move forward and hit the ball. It flew past Tex and Church to hit the water near Tucker who missed it cause he was too distracted by the sight of the girl's butts in their swimmers. Sarge laughed and walked to the edge of the pool.

He just stood there as everyone turned to stare at him and he watched as Donut pulled away from him with nothing but rage in his eyes.

"What do you want, Sarge?" asked Simmons, a tone in his voice that neither Sarge nor anyone else had ever heard him hold when talking to Sarge.

Sarge stumbled, as he didn't know what to say. His eyes burned as he saw his son turn away from him and enter the arms of his Blue lover. Sarge stared as he saw a protective and possessive look enter the friendly Blue's eyes and he finally realised that he did know the right words to say.

"I'm sorry Team… I was an uncompromising, demanding fool and I would really like to make it up to you." Sarge whispered.

"But you don't want your precious Team 'tarnished' by having queers in it!" The anger in Grif's voice was unmistakeable, "why do you want us back?"

"And even if we come back…" Donut's voice was thick with venom, "do you really think we can take your orders to attack our friends, our family and our lovers?"

"They looked after us when you wouldn't so how could we follow your orders and thank them by attacking them?" Simmons growled.

"I wouldn't expect you to fight them, I just my Team back… I missed you people. We could all live out in this canyon happily… at least until the war is over." Sarge murmured.

The Reds looked at each other and evaluated their former leader. Simmons and Grif turned to him and agreed to come back to the Red Base, they said it was because they thought it was a little too crowded over in Blue Base with eight people living there.

Donut looked at his dad and at the man in his arms. Caboose looked at him with a soft look in his grey eyes and a gentle smile on his lips.

"Go back to your father, Franklin. You need someone to be your parent and if it doesn't work you can always come back and stay with me." Caboose whispered in Donut's ear.

Donut sighed back, "Thank you, Michael. I love you."

"I love you too."

The couple placed a gentle, chaste kiss on each other's lips before Donut pulled away and hopped out of the pool to join his Team and father.

"Can you at least try and act a little nicer towards me, dad?" Donut asked Sarge as he walked past.

Everyone in Bloodgulch turned and stared at Donut and Sarge and shouted, "DAD!?"

Donut turned and gave everyone a happy smile, "Yeah… this is my Dad."

Everyone laughed as the Reds turned and headed back to their Base, the war still raged on elsewhere in the universe but for the people in the little box canyon known as Bloodgulch the teams were united, to a point, and the fighting and the pain stopped for everyone… except in Tex's bedroom where if you weren't careful you could find Church hanging from the ceiling or chained to the bed his back covered in bites, scratches and blood all for the sake of some really good…

BOW CHICKA BOW WOW!

**This** story is written for my friends, teammates and other important peoples who have supported me through everything and have never let me down. I love you all (NOT in that way you dirty minded freaks!) and I thank you for always being there. After all… no one else could take this shit from me.

Love from

FREELANCER TEX.


End file.
